For the Record

[saffronhare]

This is copied from ursulav because she said it so well. I'll be revising my will/living will before my next birthday to reflect this as well, and have already put it in a letter to my parents.

I'm thinking that our Memorial Day SOS is going to have a lot to do with CPR/First Aid training and updating/creating our living wills.

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For the record--not that my parents are that crazy, but since Congress and Dubya seem to have a wild hare up their asses on this one, I figure I might as well state it as [publicly] as possible--if I have no brain and am in a persistant vegitative state, LET ME DIE, ALREADY.

Seriously. If anybody's trying to make an argument like "She might not be totally brain dead!" frankly, that strikes me as even worse. Mother of god, at least people in jail for 15 years can walk around the cell and read books. If I'm that far down, let me go. Being a tiny, non-sentient voice crying in the dark of a broken brain is not how I wish to spend my allotted span.

The really noxious thing about all this is that we're even having the discussion. Generally the discussion is good, but in this case, it's just idiocy. This ought to be a non-issue. It should be absolutely and positively none of the government's business. We really need a party in power that's opposed to big government interefering in people's personal lives.

Like...oh...there was a party like that once...can't remember the name...

Comments

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

Bryce and I had a long discussion about this when Conner was taken off life support... it seems to me that when a brain is 'dead', it is a misnomer, as it does not rot or become unusable. Instead, I believe that it is simply in stasis, much like a heart that has 'stopped' during a heart attack.

We are now able to re-start hearts. And I belive at some point, we will be able to re-start stalled brains. Thus the dilemna with me. I would prefer not to be vegitative... although I also think it would be devestating to people pulling the plug if they figured out how to restart the brain six months later. 8-(

Actually, I'm wondering if they don't already have an idea of how to 'de-fibulate' the brain, but don't do it because of ethical dilemnas... there seems to be a lot of theological hoo-doo in the medical profession.

[agrnmn.livejournal.com]

If they do have an reasonable idea to jump start a brain, which I doubt, how do you test it? Theological hoo-doo may play into it but testing on people requires consent and consent requires a reasonable understanding of what is being consented to. I am not sure the medical professionals themselves have a reasonable idea of what is being consented to.

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

I figure testing on mice, then rats, then primates, like they do now (right or wrong, we already have this going on). With people, it becomes the consent of the guardian, just as current consent to turn off respirators or remove feeding tubes (which has been done many many times before, during, and after Terri, the only thing that makes her special is that it is contested between relatively newly wed husband, and parents.

And I agree, I don't think they know the implications of trying to re-start the brain. I expect that advances in this area will be made in Europe long before Americans could get through the legal/moral/ethical tangle we have.

People are already ape about stem cells, gene therapy, and DNA. I figure that re-starting brains will be similarly seen as "playing God", although they used to say that about re-starting hearts. 8-/

[agrnmn.livejournal.com]

The problem with testing is that we don't really a have a good grasp of what biolgically makes us conscious vs. animals, adn we'd have to test on "brain dead" which means geting prior consent (prior to going brain dead) or getting it from relatives, would it really be any different than what is going on in FL?

Anyway I think most of the tehological attacks come from outside the medical research community and play into the ethical concerns within the community.

The only thing to fear is other people's fear.

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

Now there's a good point... how much 'hoo-doo' is personal belief, and how much is fear of backlash from the community?

I worked with a few righteous doctors, but it is hard to tell if it was their theological view, or their professional voice giving answers that will keep the medical community out of trouble. ;-)